Benefits of brain teasers for memory

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A brain teaser is a challenging problem or puzzle created to stimulate cognitive processes such as memory. Research shows that staying mentally active helps to slow memory loss and mental decline. Keeping your brain active with brain exercises or other engagement helps build new brain cells and strengthens their connections which may help slow cognitive decline.1

By the time we reach adulthood, our brains have already developed millions of neural pathways that help us process information quickly, solve familiar problems and perform familiar tasks with minimal mental effort, but our brains need to be challenged in order to continuously grow and develop.2

The best brain exercises are those that are unfamiliar to you, are out of your comfort zone and challenge you to think in different ways.2 This includes activities like learning a new language, pursuing a new hobby, reading books as well as tackling difficult crosswords, Sudoku or other brain teasers. The more we work out our brain the better we’ll be able to process and remember information.

Count the number of times that the letter F appears in this sentence as fast as you can. “Finished files are the result of years of scientific study combined with the experience of years.”

Say aloud what color you see in every word, not the word you read.

Say the months of the year in reverse alphabetical order.

Answer:

Six. Almost everyone guesses three because it seems that the brain cannot process the word ‘of’. The letter F usually makes the “f” sound, like in “fox”. However, in the word “of”, it makes a “v” sound. Somehow, your brain overlooks the word “of” as it scans for the sound of “f”.